Escuela

Join a paramilitary meeting of dissidents planning to overthrow the Pinochet government. In the late 1980s, the Chilean dictator, Augusto Pinochet, submitted himself to an open plebiscite and lost. The mainstream narrative describes this process as a daring feat in which Chileans defeated the regime by peaceful means. But by giving up the presidency, the dictator secured his legacy by ensuring that all the reforms that he forced on the people were almost impossible to change by the new democratic governments.

Escuela presents the position of the dissidents, those who did not want to play into the dictatorship's plan: to them, the new transition into democracy was deeply flawed and participating in the elections only endorsed a scam. These were people who thought they could wage war against the dictatorship and win. The dissidents created secret paramilitary schools in dining rooms all over the country in order to prepare for battle and depose of the regime.

Escuela takes you into one of those dining room meetings, where all the participants wear hoods so they may never betray their fellow revolutionaries. They share a common knowledge of secrets: How to use a gun, how to hide, how to make a bomb. And, of course, how to justify the problem of killing and dying.

Written and directed by Guillermo Calderón.

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